The Smile Before The Kill

EPISODE TWO:THE TRAPE WITHOUT A FACE

Jason frowned, confusion knitting his brows together.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice quieter now, cautious,as though afraid the truth might break something fragile in her, if she let’s it out.

Emily finally turned to look at him.

Her eyes were no longer just tired.

They were haunted.

“You think Marcus Kane just killed my father,” she said slowly. “Like it was some random act of violence. A robbery. A business rivalry gone wrong.”

Jason hesitated. “That’s… what everyone believed.”

Emily let out a hollow laugh. It didn’t carry humor only something sharp and brittle.

“That’s the story they gave you.”

A cold breeze swept through the abandoned property, rustling the overgrown grass around them. The silence that followed felt heavier than anything she had said.

Jason stepped closer. “Then tell me the real one.”

Emily’s gaze drifted past him, as though she was looking through time itself.

“That night,” she began, “my father wasn’t supposed to die.”

Jason stiffened.

“What?”

“He was supposed to agree.”

“To what?”

Emily’s jaw tightened. “To hand everything over.”

Jason blinked. “Everything… as in?”

“Our company. The land. The contracts. Every deal he spent his life building.” Her voice hardened. “Marcus didn’t want to destroy my father. He wanted to own him.”

Jason shook his head slowly. “That doesn’t make sense. Your father was powerful. He wouldn’t just”

“He didn’t.”

The words cut clean through the air.

“That’s why he died.”

Silence swallowed them again.

Jason ran a hand through his hair, trying to piece it together. “So… Marcus comes here to pressure your dad… things escalate… and”

Emily shook her head.

“You’re still missing it.”

Her voice dropped lower now, almost a whisper.

“He didn’t come alone.”

Jason froze.

“…What?”

Emily finally met his eyes again, and for the first time, there was something terrifyingly clear in them.

“Marcus Kane didn’t have enough power back then to corner my father on his own. Not like that. Not without consequences.” She stepped closer, her voice steady but laced with something darker. “He had help.”

Jason’s chest tightened. “Who?”

Emily didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, she turned and walked toward the old, broken doorway of the house. Jason followed, each step heavier than the last.

Inside, the air smelled of dust and something long forgotten. The walls, once pristine, were now cracked,like the truth she was slowly unveiling.

Emily stopped in the center of what used to be the living room.

“This is where it happened,” she said softly.

Jason’s voice came out barely above a whisper. “Emily…”

“He stood right there,” she continued, pointing to a faint stain on the wooden floor. “My father. Still refusing. Still fighting.” Her lips trembled,but not from weakness. From restraint. “And Marcus… Marcus was losing patience.”

Jason swallowed hard.

“And the other person?” he asked.

Emily’s expression changed.

It wasn’t grief anymore.

It was something colder.

“Watching.”

Jason felt a chill crawl up his spine.

“Watching?” he repeated.

Emily nodded slowly. “Not just watching… deciding.”

A beat passed.

Then

“They gave the order.”

Jason’s heart skipped.

“Who, Emily?”

Her silence stretched too long.

Too heavy.

And then she said it.

“My mother.”

The words didn’t just land.

They shattered.

Jason staggered back slightly, as if the truth had physically struck him.

“No,” he said immediately. “No, that’s not Emily, that’s not possible.”

But she didn’t flinch.

“You think I didn’t say the same thing?” she asked quietly. “You think I didn’t spend years convincing myself I was wrong?”

Jason shook his head, panic rising in his chest. “Lady Dante? Your mother? Why would she

“Because she was already part of it.”

Jason went still.

Emily’s voice was steady now. Too steady.

“She and Marcus had been working together long before that night. Quiet deals. Hidden transfers. Pieces of my father’s empire being sold off without him knowing.” She let out a slow breath. “By the time he realized… it was already too late.”

Jason’s mind raced. “So you’re saying… this wasn’t just murder.”

Emily looked at him.

“This was a takeover.”

The weight of it pressed down on him.

“Your mother…” he whispered. “She chose this?”

Emily’s lips curved, not into a smile, but something far more dangerous.

“She didn’t just choose it,” she said. “She benefited from it.”

Jason felt sick.

“And you’ve known this… all this time?”

“No,” Emily replied. “Not all this time.”

She reached into her bag slowly, pulling out a small, worn object.

A recorder.

Jason’s eyes widened.

“What is that?”

Emily turned it over in her hand, staring at it like it held the last piece of her soul.

“This,” she said softly, “is why I came back.”

Jason stepped closer. “Emily…”

“I found it hidden in my father’s old office. Weeks ago.” Her grip tightened. “It’s a recording from that night.”

Jason’s breath caught.

“You’ve… listened to it?”

Emily nodded once.

“And?”

She looked up at him.

And this time

She smiled.

Not warmly.

Not kindly.

But with something chilling beneath it.

“It’s all there, Jason,” she said. “Every voice. Every word.” Her eyes darkened. “Every betrayal.”

Jason’s pulse quickened. “Then we go to the police. We expose them. We…

“No.”

The word came sharp. Immediate.

Final.

Jason blinked. “What?”

Emily stepped closer, her voice dropping to something almost intimate.

“Justice doesn’t live in courtrooms, Jason,” she said. “Not for people like them.”

A pause.

Then, softer

“They buried the truth once. They’ll do it again.”

Jason stared at her, realization slowly creeping in.

“Emily…” he said carefully, “what are you planning?”

Her gaze held his.

Unblinking.

“You remember what I said?” she asked.

His throat went dry.

“…About ending it today?”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

A long silence followed.

And then

“I wasn’t talking about my life.”

Jason’s heart slammed against his chest.

“Emily… don’t do this.”

But she was already stepping back.

Already becoming someone he didn’t fully recognize.

“The smile before the kill,” she whispered, almost to herself.

Jason’s stomach dropped.

“Emily”

“They smiled that night, Jason,” she said, her voice breaking just slightly. “Marcus. My mother. Like my father’s life meant nothing.” Her expression hardened again. “I’ve replayed that smile in my head for years.”

She looked at him one last time.

“So now…”

Her lips curved slowly.

“I want to see theirs… right before everything ends.”

Jason felt fear grip him fully now.

Not of her

But of what she was becoming.

And what she was about to do.

“Emily,” he said firmly, stepping forward. “Revenge won’t fix this. It won’t bring him back.”

“No,” she agreed calmly.

“It won’t.”

A beat.

“But it will make them feel it.”

Her phone buzzed suddenly in her hand.

She glanced at the screen.

And for the first time

Something almost like anticipation flickered in her eyes.

“It’s time,” she said.

Jason’s voice shook. “Time for what?”

Emily slipped the recorder back into her bag and walked past him toward the door.

“For them to come to me.”

Jason turned sharply. “What did you do?”

She paused at the doorway, her silhouette framed by the fading light outside.

Then she said

“I invited them.”

Jason’s blood ran cold.

“…Both of them?” he asked.

Emily didn’t turn back.

“Yes.”

A pause.

Then

“And this time… no one is walking away.”

She stepped out into the night.

And Jason, standing in the ruins of the past, realized something terrifying

The truth hadn’t just set Emily free.

It had turned her into something unstoppable.